


Destination Destiny

by helsinkibaby



Category: The Flying Doctors
Genre: Canon Het Relationship, F/M, FIx It, Het, Post canon, Reunions, Romance, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-19
Updated: 2017-11-19
Packaged: 2019-02-04 11:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12769890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: In the middle of her travels, Rowie comes back to Australia and starts work in Perth. While there, two encounters change her life forever.





	Destination Destiny

**Author's Note:**

> For the whatif au challenge on livejournal - number 7, supernatural elements.

It was the pictures that drew Rowie's eye first as she walked down the hall of the nursing home. Most of the residents had pictures of their families on their walls, faded black and white wedding photographs, colourful ones of children and grandchildren and, in a few cases, great-grandchildren. 

This room was different. 

On these walls, there were pictures of the Eiffel Tower, of Times Square, of the Pyramids of Egypt, of dozens more places that Rowie had never seen but always dreamed of. She found herself drawn in, gazing at each photograph with a smile on her face and she was so lost in wonder that she jumped when she heard a voice behind her. 

"And who might you be?"

She spun around, heart pounding, although she knew there was no need to be afraid. After all, they took security quite seriously around here, nobody got in (or especially got out) without the correct documentation. The speaker was a woman, sitting in a chair in the far corner of the room, a novel open on her knees. The light in the room was dim but there was a lamp beside her so Rowie supposed she could see the book's lettering just fine. Her eyesight obviously hadn't diminished with age, Rowie guessing she was well into her eighties, the same as most of the home's residents. Her eyes were sharp as she gazed at Rowie, showing no signs of mental deficiencies and her silver hair was pulled back and up in a tight bun. 

"Well?" Her voice was impatient. "Aren't you going to answer me?" 

Rowie shook herself, put on her best smile. "I'm Doctor McGowan's locum, Doctor Lang," she told her. "I'm just making my rounds." 

The old woman snorted. "At family visiting time? Good luck with that." 

It was a fair point, which was why Doctor McGowan's notes had specifically said to make sure she was in before this time. She'd managed it too, was all finished, each name she was supposed to see ticked off her list and she'd been looking forward to knocking off for the day before she'd been distracted. 

Still, it raised another question, one that Rowie, having done locum duty in several homes all over the country before ending up here, knew to phrase delicately. "Aren't your family here today?" 

The woman chuckled. "Oh, you're good. Very diplomatic, that." Rowie bit back the rejoinder that she obviously hadn't been diplomatic enough if the woman could read between the lines. "Take a look around, girlie... Do you see any family on these walls?" 

It gave Rowie the excuse to look at the pictures again. Sure enough, there were any amount of landscapes, but none of people. Which struck Rowie as really sad, that this woman had no-one who would visit her. She swallowed hard, not sure of what to say. 

"Don't feel sorry for me." The woman's voice was sharp again and Rowie could understand that - goodness knows, she hated people looking at her with sympathy in their faces, in their voices. "I travelled the world... saw everything I wanted to see."

She sounded almost defiant, but Rowie was more amazed than anything else. "You took all of these?" 

"Every one." The woman nodded, her eyes suddenly far away. "No-one else understood. They said, 'She's crazy, that Rosie girl,' but I didn't think so. I made my choice and I don't regret it." She looked down then, her gaze falling to her left hand. Wizened fingers touched the fourth finger and her lips softened, as if there was something there that only she could see. Her soft, "Much," was so quiet that Rowie could barely hear it, would have missed it if there was the slightest noise in the room. 

That little word hung in the air between them for a long moment, stealing the breath from Rowie's throat, though she couldn't quite say why. 

"It's been a good innings," the woman continued eventually, her voice softer now, almost wistful. "But I'd be lying sometimes if I didn't wonder..." She stopped, shook her head as if to clear it. "Still, no point crying over split milk, isn't that right?" Somewhere down the hall, a baby let out a squeal of laughter, followed by the sound of adults laughing too, and a flash of longing, quickly concealed, shot over the woman's face. When she looked up at Rowie, her eyes were as sharp as they'd been when Rowie first walked into the room. "You'd better finish your rounds, girlie," she said. "You don't want to be wasting your time on an old woman like me."

"I don't know about that." Rowie made herself smile, though she didn't feel like it. "I might come back and get some travel tips for my next adventure." 

A mirthless chuckle came from the chair as she picked her novel back up. "You do that." 

It was obviously a dismissal and Rowie took it as such. She dropped some notes off at reception, drove to the surgery she was working at and dropped the rest off there. Then, her work finished, she drove home. 

The apartment was small, tiny really, but she'd always told herself it suited her needs. She didn't need a lot of stuff - less was better when you wanted to be able to travel at a moment's notice - and with the hours she worked when she was here, the less cleaning she had to do, the better. She never usually minded it but for some reason, today it felt as if the walls were closing in on her so she went into her room, stripped off her sensible doctor's clothes in favour of a light blouse and shorts and sandals and went for a walk. 

She ended up where she always did, one of her favourite things about living in this part of the city. Cottesloe Beach was currently filled with people enjoying the early evening sunshine, families having picnics and surfies catching waves. There was an energy to the air that usually was infectious, usually made Rowie smile too. 

But as she made her way along the beach, she felt unsettled. Not for any reason she could put her finger on, not at first. But then the break water caught her eye and suddenly she was four years in the past, on a different beach, deserted save for her and an elderly couple, the woman sitting beside her, the man taking his surfboard out beyond the breakwater for the final time. 

Burt and Elsie hadn't always been happy, anyone with eyes could see that. But Rowie saw now for the first time what she'd missed then - they may not always have had it happy, or easy, but they had loved each other. Fiercely - maybe too fiercely - but the love, that's what Rowie had seen there, still burning underneath it all. 

And for the first time in four years, Rowie was suddenly homesick. 

Not for Cooper's Crossing - well not entirely anyway. 

Not the whole town. Just for one particular house, one particular man. 

She sucked in a deep breath, dropped down onto the sand and let her head fall into her hands as she tried to regain her equilibrium, her reason. She had called it off with Johnno for the best of reasons, she knew that. They were too different, that's what she'd told him, that they would make each other miserable. She'd known something else though, something she'd barely admitted to herself, never mind to him - if he ever left her, she wouldn't be able to survive it. Better to get it over with sooner rather than later, she'd thought, before it hurt too much. Better to leave, rather than be left. 

There had been other men since then. But no-one serious, no-one she could see herself settling down with. 

She'd spent the last four years telling herself that she'd made the right choice, that she didn't regret it. Most of time, she even believed it. 

Today, she wrapped her arms around her knees, stared out at the water and tried not to cry. 

She gave herself exactly one minute of weakness, counted to sixty just to be sure, then she pushed her hair back from her face, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. Rising to her feet, she started back the way she'd come - a little dinner, a long shower, a good night's sleep and she'd be fine. Life went on, after all, and so did she. 

The last of the day's surfers were just finishing up as she walked, laughing and talking as they made their way out of the surf. She glanced over at the group of men a little ahead of her, smiling at their obvious enthusiasm for the sport. 

Then she stopped in her tracks. 

Because one of the men coming out of the surf looked very familiar, as well he should, considering he was the very man she'd just been thinking about. She blinked, sure the sun in her eyes was playing tricks on her, but no. Johnno Johnson was walking towards her, deep in conversation with the other man at his side, surfboard tucked under his arm. He shook his head as he moved, droplets of water flying out from curls of dark hair that was a little shorter than when she'd first met him, but a little longer than the last time she'd seen him. He'd pulled his wetsuit down to waist level, so her eyes could travelover his chest and they did, finding it just as broad and perhaps a little more muscular than she remembered, both from real life and the dreams that he had sneaked into in the intervening years. He looked good, she thought, and as she thought that, he looked right at her and came to a complete stop, staring at her with wide eyes and open mouth. 

"Rowie?" Her name on his lips for the first time in four years sent a rush of giddiness flying through her. 

"Hi, Johnno." She took a step towards him, he took two towards her, one arm extended as if to pull her into a hug. He stopped before he reached her though, his arm dropping and Rowie was surprised by how her stomach dropped with what was unmistakably disappointment. 

Maybe Johnno saw that - he always could read her, even when she didn't want him to - and his eyes widened. "Better not hug," he said quickly, looking down at himself. "Don't want to make you wet." 

The moment the words registered with them all, his friend let out a snort of laughter that had Johnno glaring at him. Rowie pressed her lips together and looked down, so she heard how uncomfortable Johnno sounded when he said, "I didn't know you were in Perth. Last postcard was... Berlin?" 

On suddenly surer ground, Rowie looked back up into his eyes. "London after that," she said. "I'm here about... three months now?" She pretended to have to think about it. "Had to come home, keep the skills up." His friend clapped him on the shoulder and moved away. "What about you?" 

Johnno gestured after the other man. "That's Tim... we trained together, he's been all over the world since then. He's been living here for the last year, kept on telling me I should come out, I had some leave built up so here I am." 

"You're still in Cooper's Crossing then?" Because while she'd sent plenty of postcards, it had been one way traffic - she hadn't been back to Cooper's Crossing in four years, hadn't talked to anyone from there since she left. 

"Oh yeah. Put down roots, remember? Me and Stevie Ray have done a great job on the place, you wouldn't know it... working bathroom and everything." 

Rowie laughed at the memories of the homestead and Johnno's attempts to fix it up after he'd bought it, memories of Stevie Ray and how he'd treated Johnno with such contempt back then. "Is he still alive?" she asked in amazement because the dog had been old four years ago and Johnno's lips twisted in a grimace even as his eyes danced with laughter. 

"Oh yeah. Still hates me but... I think he's too bloody stubborn to die, he's just living to torment me." There was fondness in his voice though and Rowie couldn't keep the smile off her face. Johnno was smiling too, then his gaze slid off her face, looked at something over her shoulder. Just as she was about to turn around, she saw his face go blank and then, just as quickly, settle into what she'd often called his resolve face, the one he wore when he'd made a decision. "Look, do you want to go somewhere? Get a bite to eat, catch up properly?" 

Suddenly, there was nothing else in the world that Rowie wanted. "I'd like that." 

Her honesty must have shown on her face because a grin that was brighter than anything she'd seen up to now split Johnno's face. "Great." He looked down at himself. "Let me get changed. Stay right here. Don't move, ok?" He stepped by her, moving quickly, feet skidding in the sand a little bit. There was a snort of laughter from further down the beach and Johnno's grin dimmed but only for a moment. Then he was looking at Rowie and whatever he saw on her face had him back to full wattage and he was off again, moving quickly towards his friend who wasn't trying to hide his laughter. 

Rowie didn't care. 

And when he looked back over his shoulder, like he was checking to see if she was still there, Johnno didn't look like he did either. 

He was back at her side inside of five minutes, his hair still damp, wearing a pair of baggy shorts, a hastily buttoned up short sleeved shirt and a rueful expression once he'd lost the relieved look when he saw she hadn't run off on him. "I should have thought," he said, holding out both hands. "I'm not exactly dressed for fine dining." 

As she looked him up and down - hey, he'd given her the excuse - she didn't care what he was wearing, thought that he actually looked good as good clothed as he had in the wetsuit. "I don't mind," she said, looking up and down the beach. "I'm sure there's somewhere around here we can go." 

They managed to find a diner a little way down the street that served the kind of food that Rowie, as a doctor, knew she shouldn't be eating, the kind of place that she could feel her arteries hardening the second she stepped through the door. For once, though, she didn't care about that, ordered a burger and chips and, after a moment of deliberation, a chocolate milkshake too. It made Johnno laugh for some reason but she didn't ask him why, just slid into the booth opposite him and asked him for all the news from Cooper's Crossing, which he was only too happy to give her. Not a whole lot had changed - Vic and Nancy were still running the pub, Clare was still keeping a tight rein on the radio. Geoff and Kate had had another baby, another little girl to join Scarlett. "Grace, they called her," Johnno said with a shake of his head. "I think Geoff had visions of a ballerina or something. Let me tell you, the second that kid started crawling, they realised they had something else on their hands... like Speedy Gonzales, she is. Put her down and she's gone like a flash. And climb? Strewth, she has no fear. Geoff's going grey at a rate of knots." Rowie's replacement, a man called Graham, had settled in well, which didn't surprise her, and he'd ended up dating Jackie, which, given Jackie's history with doctors, surprised Rowie a lot. Guy hadn't taken the whole thing very well and Johnno had been convinced that he'd move back to the city sooner rather than later. "They've sorted it out for the minute," he concluded, but she guessed that he didn't believe that it was anything more than a temporary solution. 

"What about you?" he asked them and she found herself telling him about her travels, the places she'd seen and the things that she'd done. There were a few places on her list that he'd also been to and so they fell into a pattern of "did you see" and "that place, what was it called, is it still there", enough that when the waitress cleared their plates and Rowie glanced down at her watch, she was shocked to see how much time had passed. 

Johnno followed her gaze and his smile faltered for the first time since they'd sat down. "Keeping you out late, am I?" 

She heard the question he wasn't asking and shook her head to answer it. "I'm on call tomorrow," she told him. "And there's no-one waiting up for me." 

Just like that, his smile was back to full force and she felt her stomach swoop as she returned it. "Fancy a walk along the beach then?" 

The conversation flowed just as easily as they walked side by side and when Johnno reached out his hand and laced their fingers together, Rowie didn't resist him. 

And when it was getting late and he insisted on walking her home, she invited him in for coffee. 

She did make coffee. 

Neither of them drank it. 

*

"Morning." 

Rowie was blinking the sleep out of her eyes when she heard the voice behind her and she smiled as she turned onto her back, looking around to see Johnno already wide awake. He was propped up on one arm, looking down on her with an expression on his face that was caught somewhere between wariness and concern and it only relaxed slightly when he saw her smiling. 

"You're really here," she said to him, pulling the sheets more tightly around herself. He chuckled at the words and she felt her cheeks flush. "I mean-"

"I know what you mean," he said, reaching out and brushing a lock of hair back behind her ear. The touch made her shiver and her shiver made him grin. Only for a second though, then he cleared his throat. "I'm... ah... I'm not really sure what happens next. I mean, what's the protocol when you wake up after a night of passion with your ex-fiancée?" His hand moved from her hair down to her shoulder. "Do I leave you to it here? Or get up and make you breakfast... or at least coffee, since I'm not sure if you have any food in your kitchen... or if you can even cook, come to think of it..."

That was definitely teasing and it made Rowie laugh as she swatted at his chest. "I can cook," she protested. 

His answer came quick as a flash. "Well then you can cook me breakfast." 

"Nice try." He moved slightly then, so his body was over hers, still a good distance between them, almost as if he was afraid that she was going to push him away, wanted to give her as much time, as much space as possible, just in case. 

His bicep was warm when her fingers curled over it and his eyes darkened as they locked with hers. "I do have one suggestion," she said, letting a slow smile spread across her lips. 

"Yeah?" He tilted his head. "What's that then?" 

Her hand slid up to the back of his neck, her other splaying on his back with unmistakable intent. "Round two." 

His expression went blank but when the words sank in, he looked nothing short of delighted. "I think you'll find it's round three, actually," he informed her. "Unless you're trying to tell me that I've made you lose your ability to count..."

She would have replied but she kissed him instead and round three - and indeed four - took precedence. 

Much much later when they were dressed and sitting at her kitchen table, mugs of coffee in hand and empty plates between them, he leaned in a little closer, a glint in his eye. "So I have something to ask you." 

Once upon a time, that question would have made her stomach turn. Today, she just lifted an eyebrow. "Oh?" 

He laid down his mug, reached over and covered her hand with his. "Can I take you to dinner tonight?" She opened her mouth to say something and he hastily added, "I'm not talking about a place like last night. I mean a proper restaurant. Tablecloths and candlelight... the whole nine yards." 

He was so earnest that Rowie's natural inclination was to tease him over it. Which was exactly what she did. "Shirt and tie?" 

Johnno didn't blink. "Well, I reckon you'd look better in a dress but sure, if you want." She didn't bother fighting the temptation to roll her eyes but it got a lot more difficult as he squeezed her fingers and said, with unmistakable and, it must be said, uncharacteristic seriousness, "I would really like to take you out properly." 

Put that way, all she could do was nod. 

She recovered her tongue just fine by the time he called back to her door that evening. "Tell the truth," was the first thing she said. "You borrowed that tie." 

Johnno gave her a lopsided grin as he tugged at the tie. "This, yes? The rest?" He looked down at the pin-striped shirt, the neatly pressed grey slacks. "I tried to borrow off Tim but he's got stubby little legs and a barrel neck... I had to go out shopping and it was slim pickings." He narrowed his eyes at what must have been on her face - it was amazement that he'd gone to such trouble but he could easily have mistaken it for amusement. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up... just don't think you're getting dessert, I can't afford it." 

She took pity on him, even though she could tell he was joking. Stepping into him, she laid her palms flat on his chest, ran them up to his shoulders. "You scrub up very nicely, Captain." 

His hands went around her waist as he leaned his head back, the better to look her up and down. "You're not so bad yourself, Doctor." He brushed a kiss across her lips and she hoped he didn't notice the ripple of goosebumps that erupted along her skin. "That's a nice dress," he murmured as he kissed her again. "I'll try not to rip this one..." 

Memories of a lifetime ago - and she really had liked that particular dress - made her laugh into the kiss and she felt his lips curl up into a smile too. "Promises, promises," she quipped as she pulled back and he swallowed hard as she moved away from him, picking up her shoulder bag. "Let's go... I'm starving." 

"Yeah." His fingers gripped hers, squeezed tightly. "I'm pretty hungry myself." 

The restaurant he'd chosen might have been at the opposite end of the scale from the previous night's diner but the end result was the same. Plenty of talk, plenty of laughter, followed by a walk hand in hand along the beach, followed by him coming back home with her. 

Which ended up being the pattern for the next few days. 

They woke up together each morning, had breakfast, kissed goodbye. She went to work, he went back to Tim's, spent the days touring around Perth, surfing on all the beaches he could find. His evenings, however, were spent with Rowie, the two of them talking about everything under the sun apart from how his holidays were drawing to a close. 

Rowie actually did a pretty good job of not thinking about it, until the day that her roster brought her back to the nursing home that she'd visited the day that she first met Johnno again. It was a bit of a shock to the system to find that a week had gone by but when her rounds were finished, she made her way back to the room to call in on Rosie and see how she was. 

Her blood ran cold when she found the room empty, not only empty, but stripped bare, no linen on the beds, no pictures on the wall. 

"Can I help you, Doctor?" 

One of the nurses was passing by, her arms full of files and Rowie nodded, not really looking at her, her eyes still on the room. "I was just checking on the lady who lived in here... do you know what happened to her?" 

For some reason, the nurse was looking st her with a look that was very familiar to Rowie. She'd seen it numerous times in numerous places like this, usually directed at any of the residents who had gone a little bit dotty in their old age. "You must have the wrong room, Doctor," she said. "This room's been empty for the last three weeks... and before that, it belonged to a man called Walter. His family moved him to another home closer to them." 

Rowie looked into the room, then around the corridors again. She was sure this was the right room, but then again, it was entirely possible she's got turned around. "So where is Rosie's room?" 

The nurse frowned. "Rosie?" 

"I'd say she's about eighty, no family... lots of photographs on the walls of places she's travelled to..."

Rowie's voice trailed off as the nurse shook her head. "I don't know who you're talking about, Doctor," she said, beginning to move off, "but we don't have anyone like that here." 

Rowie watched her go, and when the corridor was empty, she walked into the room, her head spinning, her heart pounding. This was the room, she was sure of it. The view from the window was the one she remembered, even if her attention had been diverted by the photographs of so many destinations, some she'd dreamed of visiting, some she already had...

And just like that, a thought washed over her so suddenly, so fiercely that she actually staggered, had to hold onto the bed for support. 

A woman who loved to travel, had gone all over the world alone, even though everyone thought she was mad. 

A woman who had given up her chance of having a family to follow that dream. 

A woman whose silver hair still held shades of brown, curls evident even though it was tied up in a bun. 

A woman named Rosie, the name she'd been born with, the name she hadn't used in years. 

A woman just like her. 

Exactly like her. 

It took a long time for her to get her legs underneath her, to steady herself enough to do the bare minimum she needed to do for the rest of the day and then head home. When she was finally back in her apartment, she went straight to her bedroom, studiously avoiding looking at the bed because she knew they didn't make it before they'd left the house that morning. She certainly didn't attempt to sit down on it, and definitely refused to lie down on it. Instead, she went to her wardrobe, found the box at the back with her favourite photographs from her travels - she didn't keep every one, it wasn't possible when you moved as much as she did. But her favourites, they went everywhere with her. 

And there they were. Location after location, some exactly the same as the ones that had been in Rosie's room. 

Exactly the same. 

It was a warm day, but Rowie felt cold all over. 

She sat on the floor, staring at those photographs until she heard a knock on the door. Knowing that it could be only one person, she shoved the pictures back into the box, closed the lid and pushed it into the back of the wardrobe before standing up stiffly - how long had she been kneeling there anyway? - and went to answer the door. 

Johnno's ready smile disappeared in an instant when he looked at her. "You ok?" The alarm was clear in his voice as he stepped inside and reached for her, all in one smooth easy movement. 

Rowie didn't say anything, not at first. Instead, she put her arms around his waist, buried her head in his chest and breathed in deeply. She felt his huff of surprise, heard it too, but he didn't question it, just wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, letting his cheek rest against the top of her head. He held her until she felt like she was able to let go and when he looked down at her, cupped her cheek in his hand, he was frowning. "I'd say that was some welcome, but..." He let his voice trail off and she smiled weakly. 

"Sorry," she said. "Bit of a rough day." 

Johnno's hands came up to rub her shoulders. "You want to talk about it?" 

The sound she made was caught between a laugh and a sigh because how could she possibly explain what had happened - what she thought had happened anyway - to anyone, especially someone like Johnno, one of the most straightforward, down to earth, non-superstitious people she'd ever met. "I'm not even sure where to begin," she said and he shrugged his shoulders. 

"I'm here," he told her, "whenever you're ready. I'm not going anywhere." 

Except that was a lie. She knew it and he knew it. She saw the knowledge play across his face in the way his eyes widened momentarily, the way his jaw dropped just the tiniest bit, the way his fingers flexed against her shoulders. 

And because she had never let him away with anything, she heard herself say, "Yes you are." 

The silence stretched between them, broken eventually by his sigh. "We were doing pretty good not mentioning it up till then."

She couldn't disagree with him. "When do you go back?" 

A funny look crossed his face. "I should have been back in Cooper's Crossing two days ago," he told her. The words didn't make sense for a second and when they did, her mouth dropped open. "I rang Geoff... put in for an extra week." He shrugged again, made a helpless face. "I guess I wasn't ready to say goodbye just yet." 

Rowie's legs felt shaky again and maybe Johnno knew that, maybe he even felt the same because, by some unspoken agreement, they were making their way to the couch. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked and he took one of her hands in both of his as they sat down. 

"Didn't want to break the spell, I guess," he replied. "I didn't want this to end. Selfish of me, probably... but I like being with you. I like how we are together. I always did. And the thought of giving that up..." 

His voice trailed off again but she found herself nodding. "I know what you mean." 

"Do you?" She wasn't sure if he was asking her or accusing her, it was hard to tell from his tone. "Because I look at you, Ro, and sometimes, I swear, I see the same feeling in your eyes. And, sure, it's what I want to see, there's no question about that. But this last week... the way it's been, the way I feel about you... is it just me?" 

Rowie shook her head slowly. "No." 

Johnno let out a sigh of relief that ruffled the strands of hair around her face. "Thank Christ for that." The relief only lasted for a few seconds though. "Except this is where we usually fall down... I tell you exactly where I stand and you..." 

She didn't let him finish. "Close myself off emotionally and let things build up and fester?" 

He tilted his head, considering. "Well, I'd've said it nicer..." 

She laughed at that, felt tears coming to her eyes immediately after. "I don't want you to cry, Rowie," he said, bringing one hand up to her cheek, his thumb sweeping up and down. "I just want you to talk to me... tell me how you feel... what you want." 

That was, as it had always been, the million dollar question, and Rowie had rarely had the million dollar answer. 

But today, for maybe the second time in her life - the first being the day she'd decided to leave Cooper's Crossing - she did. 

"I want everything," she told him. "I want to travel and see the places I haven't seen yet... but I want to have someone with me when I do it. I want a real home to come back to... a place where I have a life and friends and I'm not just working while I'm waiting for the next adventure to come along." The tears that were in her eyes were rolling down her cheeks but she didn't make any moves to stop them, afraid that if she broke from her train of thought now, she'd never recover. "I want what we had for the last few days to last... because the thought of you going back without me, of not having that ever again..." Even the thought of it made her stomach roil and her throat close up but then he was pulling her close and kissing her fiercely and she was kissing him back just as intensely. 

She wasn't sure who broke the kiss first but they were both breathing heavily when they did, foreheads touching. Rowie's heart was pounding, Johnno's too, she could feel it underneath her palm, going like a trip hammer. He was still smiling though, as he brought his hands up to cup her face, leaned in and kissed her again, softly, briefly. 

"So," he said, a smile in his voice to match the one on his face, "I've got something to ask you." 

It was hard to lift her usual eyebrow but Rowie gave it her best shot. "What's that?" 

Johnno kissed her again. "Can I take you out to dinner?" 

She pretended to think about it as she wound her arms around his neck. "How about we order in?"

The suggestion took a couple of seconds to register with him, but when it did, she was already kissing him, could feel his lips curving into a smile under hers. 

*

It was the pictures that drew people's eyes first, that garnered comments every time visitors stepped into their home. Photographs of their travels, places they'd seen, the two of them standing in front of some famous landmark, all smiles. 

Rowie's almost favourite was the one taken in front of the Pyramids. "They're the most amazing sight," she told people when they asked and Johnno would always nod his agreement. That was in marked contrast to his opinion of Rowie's other almost favourite photograph, at the top of the Empire State Building at night, all bundled up against the cold. "Christmas in New York, she said," he always grumbled. "It'll be beautiful, Johnno, she said. So romantic, she said. Didn't mention about it being bloody freezing though, did she?" He was always so indignant about it that all Rowie could do was laugh and yes, fine, his reaction might just be one of the reasons why she loved that photograph so much. Well, that and his reaction when she reminded him (in private, naturally,) about how much he'd liked it when they'd warmed each other up. 

Johnno's second favourite picture was neither of those, wasn't even one of the two of them together. It was one of Rowie on her own that he'd taken on a beach in Bali. She'd been walking a bit ahead of him and he'd called her name and when she'd half-turned, smiling, he'd snapped the shot then and there. She didn't let him show that one to anyone, had decided that the bikini showed way too much and she only rolled her eyes a little bit when he told her that that was why he liked the picture so much. 

Their favourite photograph, however, was one that they both agreed on, an occurrence rare enough to be worthy of note all on its own. That photograph was the one they had enlarged and framed and hung in pride of place on the living room wall, one of the two of them on Cottesloe Beach, paddling in the water. They weren't alone though - instead each of them was holding the hand of a three year old boy who, to Rowie's constant delight and intermittent exasperation, was the spitting image of Johnno. The boy was laughing away as he splashed in the water, Johnno laughing right along with him and Rowie could remember exactly what he was saying every time she looked at that picture. Just like she could remember exactly what she was thinking, namely how much her life had changed since she'd last been on Cottesloe Beach, how she had everything she'd ever wanted, even if she hadn't always known it. 

She could remember, too, Johnno's words when he first saw the photograph.

"You look so happy." 

She could remember her response too. 

"That's because I am." 

His response to that didn't have any words but that was ok. 

They didn't need them.


End file.
